The present invention generally relates to sound capturing devices and, in particular, to sound capturing devices for directionally capturing sound waves.
Earphones are used by many individuals to listen to voice or music generated by speakers within the earphones at close proximity to an individual's ears. The proximity of the speakers to the ears is desirable because the generated sound generally dominates other sources of sound in the surrounding environment, thereby providing for listening to voice or music with reduced interference from other sources of sound. The speakers in the earphones are electrically coupled to a sound generation device such as a stereo system.
A disadvantage of existing earphones, however, is that a user must either remain stationary near the sound equipment coupled to the speakers in the earphone or carry the sound equipment with him or her. A further disadvantage is that, although the proximity of the speakers to the ear in existing headphones provides for listening to music or voice generated proximate the ear of the user, in many instances, a user may wish to hear sounds from the surrounding environment such as a door bell, alarm, etc. Because current headphones seal or dominate sounds from surrounding environment, a user usually is cut off from his or her surroundings.
Yet another disadvantage of existing earphones is that a user cannot utilize the earphones for listening to voice or music at close range in locations such as concerts or movie theaters because the user does not have access to the source of sound for coupling the earphones to such source. As such, a user cannot benefit from the desirable sensation of hearing voice or music proximate to his or her ear, even though the source of sound is distant from the user.
There is therefore a need for a device for listening to voice or music wherein the device provides a sound effect comparable to an earphone where the source of sound appears to be proximate to the ear without use of speakers in the device. There is also a need for such a device to be devoid of any need for coupling the device to either a portable or a stationary source of sound. There is also a need for such a device not to seal or dominate sounds from the surrounding environment.